Talking Rights

Here is a sickening defense of torture — and it is from a coward.  Someone with cojones would have actually used the words:  “I support torture.” But John Yoo is not only wrong and a criminal — he is sin cojones…
I’ve included refutations of his argument in parentheses.
Obama Made a Rash Decision on Gitmo
by John [...]

Yesterday, the Consultative Group on the Past in Northern Ireland made very sober recommendations on what to do about the legacy of the Troubles — and one whopping mistake: a pay out of £ 12,000 (about $17,000) to the families of everyone killed — including the paramilitaries on both sides who themselves murdered the innocent.
Predictably, [...]

New Yorker writer Jane Mayer has a new piece on President Obama;s thinking on torture.  A vignette that stands out (and was highlighted by Swampland, the Time political blog) show how deeply our military abhors torture.
Not only is this important for the right to understand; the left, which has a knee-jerk reaction to anything in [...]

From today’s Washington Post:
…in a broad swipe at the Bush administration’s lawyers, Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.

Paul Krugman makes a powerful appeal in Rolling Stone:
I’m an economist, but I’m also an American citizen — and like many citizens, I spent the past eight years watching in horror as the Bush administration betrayed the nation’s ideals. And I don’t believe we can put those terrible years behind us unless we have a [...]

I’m writing to stand up for all of the people in Washington on Inauguration Day who booed Bush when he appeared on the Jumbotrons and later appeared on the Capitol steps.
I’ve heard several journalists decry the boos as bad form and disrespectful. I understand, but reject that argument.
The boos were not bad form — they [...]

No one has said it more eloquently:
“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.”
Barack Obama

Just amazing what a psychic relief it is to hear this:
This week, at his confirmation hearing, Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general-designate, did not hesitate to express a clear view. He noted that waterboarding had been used to torment prisoners during the Inquisition, by the Japanese in World War II and in Cambodia under [...]